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300
ARMISTICE DAY
 

TO ITALY

(1918)

BY CORINNE ROOSEVELT ROBINSON

Fair land of dear desire,
Where beauty like a gleam
Awakes the hidden fire
Of what our souls would dream!


Where shining ilex glistens,
And cypress' somber shade
Above dim fountains listens
In some forgotten glade.


Ah! land of dear desire,
Thy beauty floods again
My heart with sudden fire
And burns away its pain.


I dream with Perugino
On some far Umbrian hill,
Or walk with sweet Saint Francis
Till this world's fret is still;


Until my soul reposes
As, once unscourged he lay,
Amid the thornless roses
Until the break of day.